Excitement — to work with the quarterbacks, Harbaugh and first-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis — is the best way to describe McDaniels' emotions.

"I played quarterback. I’ve coached quarterbacks probably more than receivers over the years," McDaniels said on the Feb. 14 episode of "In the Trenches," a podcast hosted by former offensive lineman Jon Jansen. "A lot of the times, whatever you played, your heart is there. So it’s easy for me to want to coach the quarterback. It’s for sure easy for me to want to coach the quarterback at Michigan.

FILE - In this June 2016 file photo, Ben McDaniels, then of the Chicago Bears NFL football team, poses for a photo. Michigan has promoted McDaniels to quarterbacks coach. McDaniels was promoted by Jim Harbaugh from offensive analyst to wide receivers coach for the Peach Bowl. McDaniels’ brother, Josh, is New England’s offensive coordinator. (AP Photo, File)(Photo: The Associated Press)

"I’ve told a couple people in the past several days if you’re going to coach quarterbacks in college football, Michigan’s at the top of that list. So it’s exciting and humbling for me to be able to have a chance to do it.”

McDaniels' coaching career began in 2003 as an assistant coach at Warren G. Harding High School in Ohio, where he worked under his father, Ohio high school legend Thom McDaniels, and coached former Michigan receiver Mario Manningham.

Since then, McDaniels has had eight different coaching stops across high school, college and the NFL, including stops at Rutgers and with the Chicago Bears.

From 2009-10, McDaniels worked under his brother, Josh McDaniels, then the head coach of the Denver Broncos. In those two years, McDaniels says, he got his "master's in coaching" and his "master's in football."

"That two-year period of time was a huge period of time of my learning curve of football," McDaniels said. "I give (Josh) a lot of credit for it. He fed it to me, he learned it from Coach Belichick, and he fed it to anybody, really, that was a part of that building.

"Those years taught me a lot and have continued to do so. That’s really a foundation for our conversations. We don’t work together anymore and haven’t in 10 years, but it’s the foundation of any football conversations that we have.”

During his conversation with Jansen, McDaniels touched on some of his coaching philosophies and how he'll expect Michigan's quarterbacks to study the playbook before spring ball.

“I think we’re all in the same boat in that we’re all going to hit the ground running, learning some new things in this system that Coach Gattis wants to do," McDaniels said. "... There’ll be plenty of things that will be fresh for the quarterbacks to understand and learn."

According to McDaniels, the new staff hasn't spent much time together in its entirety due to recruiting on the road. Still, "it's been fun."

“It’s been awesome," McDaniels said. "Coach (Gattis) and I had not known each other prior to him coming here. We had recruited against each other over the years, and I know people that have either worked with him or have known him over the years that sung his praises prior to him coming to the building.

"So I was excited to meet him, I’ve been excited to work with him thus far in the building. ... We’re all having a good time as a staff, coming together and molding this system of what we want the 2019 offense to look like.”

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The college football season just ended, but it's never too early to look at what the landscape of 2019 might be. With that, the Free Press has put together its way too early top 25 college football poll. Receiving votes are Michigan State, Utah State and Northwestern. Tony Avelar, AP